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⤴Unusual rise — FloodRadar+Top 1% rise rate for this gauge.
Height for "Above a height"
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You'll be notified when this gauge is rising more than 0.10 m/hr — a sign of rapidly increasing water levels.
Beta. You'll be notified when a flood wave detected at an upstream gauge is forecast to reach this station, with an estimated arrival time. Accuracy improves as we verify more waves.
You'll be notified when a new storm-overflow (sewage) discharge starts within ~3 km of this gauge, based on the water companies' near-real-time feeds.
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Not an emergency service — if in danger call 999. Alerts rely on
EA/SEPA/NRW data and are best-efforts. Terms
Current Level
0.978 mASD
▼ Falling
24h Max
1.019 mASD
24h Min
0.806 mASD
Typical Range
0.47 - 1.49
mASD
Highest Recorded
2.94 mASD
EA official record
A 4.53 reading (7 Mar 2025) sits in our unverified raw history and is not treated as the record
Current level is 33% of this
Current Flow
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🚽Sewage overflows nearby
Recent Water Levels
🌍 floodradar.co.uk
1 day
EA forecast (official)
Prediction V2
Prediction Eris
Nimbus beta
Experimental model fusing soil moisture, river flow, groundwater and catchment
character. The shaded band is its 10–90% range, widened so that about 80% of recent outcomes fall inside it.
Under evaluation — not yet promoted, so treat as a second opinion.
River Flow
90 days
Daily mean discharge (m³/s) with the daily min–max band, from the EA Hydrology API. Flow is the volume of water passing the gauge — often a more direct flood signal than level.
Flow Data: Daily mean flow (m³/s) to 7 Oct (2 days behind — the EA publishes each day's mean a day or two after it ends; unchecked, provisional)via EA Hydrology
Storm overflows whose water reaches this gauge on the mapped river network, nearest first by distance along the river. The status is each water company's monitor: it says whether an overflow is discharging, not how much or what it contains.
65 storm overflows are traced upstream of this gauge, the nearest 4.3 km away along the river. 0 report discharging now, 62 report not discharging, and for 3 the monitor is offline or has not reported, so their status is not known.
Severn Trent Water · into Yockerton Brook · 3.9 km away in a straight line · its recorded watercourse is not the one mapped beside it
57 spills · 521 hours in 2025
Not discharging now · last
8 other overflows within 6 km are downstream of this gauge or on another branch of the river network, so they are not listed.
These are the water companies' monitor statuses; a spill does not by itself explain a change in the gauge level. River connections and distances are traced on OS Open Rivers (edition 2026-04), which leaves out many small channels. Explore the sewage map →
In a typical year this gauge reaches its typical high of 1.49 m
on about 23 days.
This year so far: 15 days.
202615 days so far
202528 days, 6 of them high · 6 high
202435 days, 10 of them high · 10 high
202326 days, 5 of them high · 5 high
202217 days, 1 of them high · 1 high
202129 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
202021 days, 4 of them high · 4 high
201938 days, 8 of them high · 8 high
20187 days, 2 of them high · 2 high
20178 days
Counted from each day's highest reading. Days with missing or implausible readings are left out.
The darker part is days above 2.23 m, the level this gauge tops only a few days a year.
Flood history near this gauge
Official Environment Agency warnings issued since 2006 for the 6 flood
areas linked to this gauge (nearest 2.5 km away).
Warnings apply to a whole flood area, not necessarily this exact spot. Years before 2006 aren't covered by the EA's historic record.
See also the Meaford flood history.
Flood areas linked to this gauge
Flood warnings and alerts are issued for whole areas. These are the 6 areas linked to this gauge, nearest first.
🌊 Urban & flashyHeavily built-up — rain runs off hard surfaces fast, so levels can spike within hours of heavy rain.
Your catchment is all the land that drains rainfall into the river above this gauge. Its character — how
steep, wet, wooded, urban or chalky that land is — decides how fast rain here turns into a rising river. A steep, bare or clay
catchment is “flashy” (rises and falls quickly, floods easily); a flat, chalk or well-wooded one is
slow and steady. The tiles below put numbers to that; the flow-duration curve reads left-to-right
from the river’s typical high flows (Q5) down to its low flows (Q95) — a steep curve means a flashy river.
The physical character of the land that drains to this gauge, and how it shapes its flood response — from the National River Flow Archive (UKCEH).
Baseflow Index
0.44
mixed response
Avg Annual Rainfall
868 mm/yr
1991–2020 · +5% since 1941–70
Urban Extent
22%
heavily urbanised
Median Annual Flood
36.32 m³/s
QMED — typical yearly peak flow
Highest Daily Mean Flow
55.60 m³/s
26 Oct 2019 · daily mean, not the instantaneous peak
Flow-Duration Curve
Daily flow (m³/s) exceeded each % of the time — a steep curve is flashy, a flat one is steady. Q5 high · Q50 median · Q95 low.
Rated station gauging a relatively urban catchment near Stoke-on-Trent.
More detail
The catchment
Moderate relief catchment, substantially urbanised with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. Geology mainly Coal Measures and Marls, Millstone Grit and subordinate Sherwood S'st, widely covered by Boulder Clay. Mining, industrial and mixed agricultural land use.
The station
Time-of-flight ultrasonic installed at the site, however, peak flow data are from ratings.
How it measures flow
Multipath ultrasonic gauge installed beneath A34 road bridge on a gentle curve. Ultrasonic gauge replaced with a new NivuFlow time of flight setup in February 2022. However, peak flow data are from three peak flow ratings applied across period of record, derived for flood forecasting. Out-of-bank flows inferred by the rated flow from spot gaugings. Site experiences large silt deposits on left bank due to upstream bend in the river. This can affect ultrasonic performance though is managed. High flow ADCP gaugings carried out using a rope from the road bridge. Low flow gaugings carried out in the ultrasonic section using remote controlled ADCP.
Flow regime
Quite responsive but flow regime dominated by Strongford WRW discharge (Stoke-on-Trent).
The flow record
AMAX levels in water years 1985/86 and 1986/87 are suspect, but AMAX and daily mean flow magnitudes are consistent with analogue station 28040 upstream. Station undermined in 1987 flood, reconstructed 1990/1. In 2001-2002, gauge not performing v well. Transducers failing constantly, especially lower ones (due to silt). Problems in 2002-2003 with rubble in channel now creating skew flows & siltation. Full period of record peak flow data reviewed and released in August 2025 (WINFAP Files v14).
Timing, not cause. Gauges can move together simply because the same rain fell on both.
Frequently asked questions
Is the River Trent at Darlaston flooding today?
The current level is 0.98m, which is within the typical range of 0.47 to 1.49m. Flooding is unlikely at this level.
Is the river level rising or falling at Darlaston?
Based on the most recent readings, the level is currently falling. The chart above shows the last 12 hours of measurements by default (up to 7 days), updated roughly every 15 minutes.
Why is the level slowly falling?
When little or no rain has fallen for a while, a river level gradually drops as the water stored in the ground and soil drains away with nothing to replace it. This is called baseflow recession and is normal in dry spells. Only about 7.2mm of rain has fallen nearby in the last 7 days, so the flow is being sustained mainly by groundwater. A gentle decline like this is expected and is not a sign of a problem — downstream gauges often recede a little faster than headwaters further upstream, and levels recover once rain returns.
What is a normal level for the River Trent at Darlaston?
The typical range at this station is 0.47m to 1.49m, based on Environment Agency historical data. Levels above 1.49m are higher than usually seen and may indicate a flood risk.
How often is this river level data updated?
Readings are supplied by the Environment Agency gauge. FloodRadar checks for updates roughly every 15 minutes; the timestamp above shows how recent the latest available reading is.
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📮 Flood risk by postcode near this gauge
Postcodes within 5 km with properties in the Environment Agency’s rivers-and-sea flood-risk bands:
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14 Feb 2014
1985
1985
1985
Looking at ultrasonic section
Looking downstream from station
Looking upstream